


love the taste of you in the morning

by largepeachicedtea



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Lazy Mornings, M/M, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29414505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/largepeachicedtea/pseuds/largepeachicedtea
Summary: In which TK's favorite way to wake up in the morning is with Carlos by his side, and Carlos just isn't a big birthday person.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 14
Kudos: 152





	love the taste of you in the morning

**Author's Note:**

> title from ariana grande's song 'obvious' (which is on my tarlos spotify playlist titled ['he's a ten'](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yh2IU46spDfAoBVtucMQx?si=Mj1og9HiRO68xWGSf9eJZA) if you wanted to listen 😌) 
> 
> thank you to [melo](https://meloingly.tumblr.com/) for beta-ing this work!

TK felt comfy and warm and unwilling to move for the world. 

It was a relatively new feeling for him, as were a lot of things since his relationship with Carlos became an actual Relationship™ and not just a mutual, flirty convenience that had more feelings than TK wanted to admit. 

For example, the multitude of adorable (and sometimes blurry) dog pictures Carlos sent him whenever one caught his attention whilst he was out on a shift, which TK happily responded to with any of his many Buttercup shots. Or when he got surprised by Carlos turning up at the station just as his shift was ending, sometimes even with boba tea from the cafe TK liked. Even the late nights -or very early mornings depending on how you looked at it- of just holding each other, curled up on the couch with some mindless Netflix original playing that neither of them cared about, because all of their focus and attention was on each other and the way they felt in their arms.

All of this, as well as the beaming heat of the sun shining through the gap between Carlos’ curtains. It was perhaps one of TKs favourite feelings in the world, the soft, detergent-scented bed sheets tangled around them, the faint chirping of birds announcing the start of the day, and a warm, firm body beneath him that he would happy stay clinging to for the rest of time. It was simple and serene, and something TK had been so afraid of never getting once upon a time that he could barely believe his luck.

It was just a shame that the serenity wasn’t meant to last, as a trumpet-filled tune began blasting from Carlos’ other side. TK felt the man beneath him jump to alertness as the song progressed, a raspy-sounding woman beginning to sing. 

“Goddamn…” TK heard Carlos mutter. He fell back to his side of the bed while Carlos stretched to grab his phone from his nightstand, barely looking at the screen before he held it up to his ear. TK watched Carlos slump back onto his back and smiled when his other hand returned to where it had been stroking through TK’s hair. He shuffled until he was back where he was before their rude intrusion, pretty much blanketing his boyfriend and returning his head to lay on Carlos’ bare chest, idly listening to the one-sided phone conversation.

“ _Mamá? Que pasa ... No, por supuesto..._ ”

TK let his mind fall asleep as he listened to Carlos’ voice, feeling the rumble from where his ear was pressed against his chest. It was croaky and deep from sleep, and probably TK’s favourite sound to hear in the morning.

“ _Tengo mucho tiempo ... Mamá, escucha ... No, no puedes hablar con él!_ ”

At the sound of Carlos’ voice suddenly raising a few octaves, TK lifted his head to look at his boyfriend curiously. Carlos’ eyes flickered down to meet his for a millisecond, before returning to the ceiling, his cheeks raspberry-tinted. 

“ _Sí ... Sí ... No, lo sé ... Sí ... Muchos gracias ... Bueno, también te amo, adiós_ ”

TK continued to watch Carlos as he pointedly ended the phone call, tossing the phone back onto his bedside table and sighing deeply. “Rough conversation?” He asked, folding his hands on top of Carlos’ chest to rest his chin on.

“Nah,” Carlos replied, moving his other hand to rub lightly over TK’s bare shoulder. “That was just my mom.”

“Your mom?” TK’s eyebrows raised. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. She was just calling to make sure I remembered that I’d promised to have family dinner on Sunday-”

TK settled with a smile.

“-and to wish me a happy birthday.”

TK’s brain skidded to a halt.

Wait.

“What?”

“Yeah, she likes to get me and my sisters over every few months at the very least, says that just because we grew up-”

“No, I mean,” he moved to balance on one of his forearms. “It’s your birthday, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

Carlos shrugged best he could whilst half-covered by his boyfriend. “We’ve been busy, and it never came up. Besides, I barely remembered myself. I’m just not a birthday person.”

TK sighed. “Still, we should do something. Maybe we could see who’s free to have some kind of last-minute party later?”

Carlos’ mouth twisted at one corner momentarily. “Nah, don’t bother. I’m not interested in celebrating it. It’s just another day in the year.”

With a pout that was almost ruined by a smile, TK rested himself back on Carlos’ chest. “I don’t know about that, I’d say any day that we can celebrate you is a pretty good day to me.” A happy thrill shot through him as he saw Carlos’ face flush again when he looked down at him with a semi-embarrassed looking grin. They were interrupted, once again, when Carlos’ phone began making noises, only this time it was a generic alarm tone that had them both sighing.

“Okay, now it really is the morning.” Carlos groaned as he fiddled with his phone for a moment to make the ringing stop. 

“Mmhm, well good morning birthday boy.” TK leaned forward for a simple, sweet kiss, hovering close for a moment longer to nudge his nose against Carlos’ own. “You sure there’s nothing you wanna do?” 

“I’m sure, really. I don’t need any more celebrations, I’m happy for today to remain as uneventful as possible.” 

TK huffed half-heartedly, but couldn’t resist returning Carlos’ smile as his hand resumed stroking at TK’s hair.

“What were they like?”

“What?”

“The birthday celebrations from when you were a kid, what were they like?”

TK watched Carlos tip his head back, feeling his hand pause just for a moment.

“I don't know, they were never been a big deal. I mean, as a kid, of course, I got the presents, the attention, and the special cake, but I have 4 older sisters and all our birthdays are in June. Mine is right at the end so by the time it came around, everyone was birthday-ed out, me included.”

TK smiled at the sound of his boyfriend’s soft tone. “Still, you sure you don't wanna do anything?”

“I really don't,” Carlos said fondly. “I've gone out for drinks with some co-workers before, a few friends. Michelle made my last one very memorable, but nah, I don't feel like making anything big of it. Just not my style.”

TK sighed gently and settled back down against Carlos’ chest. “Fair enough. Not everyone likes big parties I guess.”

Carlos ruffled TK’s hair, before smoothing it back and leaving his hand at the back of TK’s head. “Did you want to do something for _your_ birthday?”

TK’s head raised again, leaving Carlos’ hand to drop to his bicep. “What do you mean my birthday? You don’t even know when it is.”

“‘Course I do, Mr August 21st.”

TK gave him a sharp look of confusion.

“What, you thought I only saw your full name on your license? Please.”

TK dropped his lips against his interlocked fingers. He wasn’t a huge fan of thinking about that point in his life before the friends and family he’d made in Texas had really solidified, before everyone here brought the colour back into the life that had been murky and grey for much too long. It was rough for him, and not a time he would ever like to linger over. 

“Hey, Ty?”

Tk lifted his eyes again to meet Carlos’, a deep brown he was always content to get lost in but currently held a faint glimmer of concern.

“Sorry, just-” He raised one of his hands to wave his fingers next to his temple in the universal gesture for _I got lost in my brain, nothing to worry about_. He watched Carlos smile, pure understanding, and raise his own hand to interlink their fingers and bring them back down.

“My birthdays were always pretty eventful I guess. Typical only child birthday.” TK grinned in amusement at Carlos’ overdramatic eye roll and muttering of ‘of course’ that wasn’t anywhere close to serious. “Big parties with lots of kids I can’t even remember now. When I started training at the academy my Dad always made sure we did something for it, and at our old firehouse the whole crew went out to a bar or a club or something if we couldn’t get the time for an actual party.” TK smiled as he thought back to his previous birthdays. He’d grown up looking forward to it every year, and that didn’t dim as an adult. His dad had never let him think for even a second that he wasn’t worth all the birthday cake in the world, even if it was a vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, plastic-tasting mess a few times. Hell, even Alex had never let it pass without some kind of fun, even if their relationship hadn’t been much more than that for him. 

“Sounds like a good time,” Carlos murmured.

TK responded in a whisper. “It was, yeah.”

TK closed his eyes at the feeling of Carlos’ thumb running back and forth across his cheekbone. He settled the other side of his face down on the back of his hand that lay against Carlos’ chest and sighed happily. Slowly, Carlos’ thumb trailed higher, around the socket of his eye, resting just above his eyebrow. He felt Carlos’ fingers stretched out and thread into the hair at the side of his head, scratching lightly back and forth as if TK was a particularly wonderful cat Carlos was trying to make purr. The rising sun was comfortably hot against TK’s skin from where the cover had fallen to reveal his bare back to the room. Distantly, TK wondered if he’d ascended into a tiny corner of heaven during the night, because he was pretty sure it wasn’t humanly possible to feel this calm and tranquil and content while still remaining on earth.

The beautiful moment that TK wanted to bask in for eternity was broken by another disturbingly loud alarm tone ringing from Carlos’ nightstand. TK groaned as he felt Carlos rising up to silence the noise again. 

“And that would be my last chance alarm. C’mon, Teek, up you go.”

TK whined again as he felt Carlos’ hands prodding at him to move, and while he was very tempted to be stubborn and not let his gorgeous, warm, and wonderful boyfriend ever leave, he decided to be mature instead and rolled over on to the other side of the bed where the bedsheets were depressingly cool and lacking a Carlos-shaped body.

“Thank you, babe,” he heard Carlos call, tone amused, as he began moving around the room. TK reached out to grab onto the pillow Carlos had been lying on and hugged it close to his body as he tucked himself back into the sheets. 

For the next few minutes, TK lay there quietly, inhaling the smokey cedarwood scent of Carlos’ prefered cologne mixed with the soft, homely smell of laundry detergent. It felt like his intelligence had fallen on standby, while the rest of TK’s mind went calmly rolling through his fantasies. The faint sound of the shower through the open ensuite door was very tempting, even more so with his boyfriend’s half-mumbled singing filtering through the door frame. TK turned his body just enough so that it wasn’t too much of a strain to peak into the bathroom, rising to rest the side of his head in his palm, supported by his elbow. With just the right angle, he could see Carlos’ body through the steam of the bathroom, the water droplets on the glass shower frame barely a hindrance to his peeking. 

TK’s mouth twisted into a sly grin as he watched his boyfriend nod his head to the nonsense tune TK couldn’t even attempt to identify. Suds were sliding down Carlos’ neck, following the defined muscles of his back, then his waist, before tracing the wonderful curve of his ass. TK sucked on his teeth, hollowing his cheeks as he happily became entranced by the soap sliding over Carlos’ body. Unfortunately, it wasn’t set to last long, as Carlos turned around and spotted TK’s loyal enjoyment of the view. Not that that stopped TK from having a happy old time staring at his lover’s body, but when he did finally drag his eyes back up to Carlos’ face, he was met with an amused, if teasing smile. 

TK leaned forward, slightly closer to the edge of the bed till he was resting on both his forearms, where he could look at Carlos through his lashes. Very purposely, he poked his tongue along the inside of his left cheek, the corners of his lips pinched up in an anticipatory smile.

Carlos’ voice was muffled through the glass but his solid _‘no’_ was just as clear as his chuckling that followed.

“What?” TK asked, painting a picture-perfect portrayal of innocence on his face that had Carlos raising a brow. He sighed dramatically, earning another laugh, before he gave up on his faux-seduction, and flopped back on to the bed with a small bounce. He remained there, eyes closed, listening to Carlos finishing his shower, inhaling the steam that was flowing out and into the bedroom until he felt fingers wringing around his ankle. He cracked open one eye, and then the other when he saw Carlos standing at the foot of the bed, and rose until he was leaning back on his forearms to stare up at his boyfriend. His very hot, wet and steamy, with muscles like a Greek God, _jesusfuckingchrist,_ boyfriend. 

“Don’t you have work?”

Carlos raised another eyebrow at TK’s deadpan tone and grinned. He tugged on TK’s ankle just enough to jolt him closer a minuscule amount, bedsheets dragging with him, before dropping his ankle all together and stepping to the side to get to his closet. 

“Yeah, I do,” he replied casually as he dropped the towel from his waist to the floor, immediately hearing a groan from the bed.

“You’re a terrible person,” TK announced, flopping back down to the pillow as Carlos began pulling his underwear, socks, undershirt and uniform on. 

Carlos turned as he began buttoning his shirt. “No, you’re just insatiable.” 

“Yeah, well,” TK huffed as he continued to stare at Carlos through one eye, the other covered by the back of his hand that he’d dramatically thrown there. “Don’t act like you don’t like it.”

As Carlos moved around the room, collecting various things he needed for the day and fixing his hair in the mirror, he periodically smiled over at him in a way that had TK’s heart pumping, and his body feeling weak as if any attempt to move towards his boyfriend would leave him a puddle of pale limbs on the floor. 

“I’m gonna grab some breakfast and coffee on my way into work, but do you want me to leave a pot on to brew for when you get up?” Carlos asked simply from the bedroom doorway. He’d primped and prepared as much as he would any other day, but the late start meant he wouldn’t have time to eat at home. 

“Oh, uh, yeah. That’d be great if you have the time.” TK sat up, the sheet falling to his lap, rubbing the heel of his palm into his eye whilst his hair was no doubt an absolute birds’ nest. Silently, he watched Carlos stop his movements for a moment to meet TK’s gaze, until a few quick strides later, where he was back by the bed, next to TK. Before TK could ask what the man was trying to do, Carlos was leaning down to plant a kiss at the side of his forehead. 

“Of course I do,” Carlos said simply, quiet and mellow, before turning on his heel to leave.

TK, half-stunned silent and half soppy with emotions, took a moment to get himself back into the room. “Have a good day!” he called out. He listened to Carlos’ yell of “you too!”, stifled by the distance, before settling back into the pillows with a huff. He could hear some tinkering from the other side of the house, where Carlos was putting a pot on for TK, though he was pretty sure the officer was going to be at least a little late now, even if he used his sirens.

  
  


\---

“Ah! Mother-!” TK hissed as his fingertips were pinched between two porcelain plates in his distracted attempt to grab one of them. He rubbed the offended fingers into his thigh in an attempt to rid himself of the pain as his other hand pulled one of the plates down and placed it on the countertop. The sound of chipper guitar strings was floating through the air from some speakers by the TV, following the scents of lavender and vanilla that were being emitted from the couple dozen tall candles he had scattered around the living room. At first, he had thought that they were a little cheesy, but Carlos didn’t own a diffuser and TK had needed to cover up the faint scent of burning from his failed baking attempt that hadn’t been wafting out of the window fast enough.

Singing along to the music under his breath, TK pulled out the pack of tiny candles after carefully transferring the picture-perfect piece of cake out of the box and onto the plate, proceeding to stick a single candle into the strawberry that sat at the centre of it. He left the newly-plated cake on the counter, trashing all of the packagings, and started fiddling with the vase of flowers sitting on the coffee table, twisting it this way and that way nervously. 

It wasn’t that he’d never celebrated a significant other’s birthday before, of course he had, but this was the first time he was doing something without... _actually_ doing something. Normally it was easy to make everything perfect when there was a party because there were always things to continue perfecting until the last minute, which kept him and his anxious energy occupied. This time there wasn’t much to distract himself with. He hadn’t wanted to go against Carlos’ wishes, but he also didn’t want the day to pass without anything happening, so this was his attempt at a happy medium. Something simple and small, just for Carlos.

Almost simultaneously, there was the sound of a car engine pulling up in front of the house and the headlights shining in through the front window. TK stopped his fiddling and lunged back over into the kitchen area, grabbing his phone to turn the music off, and pulling out a lighter to quickly light the candle. 

“Shit, shit, _shit_.” He hissed to himself as he heard the sound of keys jingling from the front door. He spun on his heels, head twisting around to check if he’d cleared everything away, before he launched himself at the wall to flick the main lights off, leaving the room bathed in a subtle golden glow from the mass of lit candles.

“I’m-...” Carlos started to call out upon entry, before freezing at the sight of the glowing decorations and his fidgeting boyfriend. “What?”

TK felt his jaw clench with nerves, his fingers tapping sporadically on the countertop. “Happy birthday!” He called out, voice just a tad too high to sound casual. 

Carlos, who had been staring at the array of glowing candles, snapped his eyes up to his nervous boyfriend. “Tyler… What did you…” His voice trailed off, weakened by the sweet sight of his boyfriend fiddling with the plate that was now in his palms. The flickering nearby glow of the singular candle from the cake did little to hide the pink hue creeping up his face. 

TK cleared his throat a few times, ducking his head down before he opened his mouth.

“ _Happy birthday to you_ ,” he sang, voice faint, “ _happy birth… day…_ ” TK stopped when he looked up to see Carlos staring at him with an odd sense of wonder, an open grin on his gorgeous face. TK sighed and pursed his lips in embarrassment.

“Hey, no, don’t stop.” Carlos encouraged quietly. 

TK took a moment, glancing down at the cake in his hands. He felt dumb, but if he had to feel dumb for anyone, it would be for Carlos. He took a deeper inhale and looked up to continue the song, his voice cracking. 

“ _Happy birthday dear Carlos, happy birthday to… you._ ” It was more of a murmur than a sing-song by the end, but judging by the wide grin and warm eyes Carlos was sending his way, it didn’t matter. 

TK stood there solidly, watching Carlos empty his pockets onto the coffee table, step out of his shoes, and toss the uniform jacket he’d been holding over onto the couch. 

“I know you said you didn’t want to do anything,” he spoke, not wanting to listen to his awkward silence after his even more awkward singing. “I figured this would be okay though, right? And we can just throw a movie on or something, y’know.” 

Carlos stood up from where he’d propped his shoes inside his storage caddy, his smile still wide on his face as he listened to his boyfriend’s nonsense talk, and stepped forwards until he was close enough to bring his hands under where TK’s own were balancing the plate. He ducked down and blew out the small flame, watching the thin trail of smoke rise for a moment before looking back up to the other man’s face.

“You make a wish?” TK asked, a small, satisfied smile on his lips that were begging for Carlos to tuck himself as close as he could, despite the celebratory dessert being held between them, and plant one sweet and simple kiss upon them, and then another. 

“Didn’t need to,” Carlos said with a shrug, faux casual until he saw the coy twist of a smile on TK’s face that he couldn't help returning. 

“Such a cliche.”

“Hey! I’m just an appreciative boyfriend!”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i feel very iffy about this work so i'm glad you've made it to the end! feel free to let me know what you think, kudos and comments always appreciated :))


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